Systems and methods of deploying an operating system from a resilient virtual drive

Abstract

A computing device that runs an operating system (OS) in a resilient OS mode in which configuration parameters of the OS are accessible from multiple physical drives so that the computing device can continue to operate notwithstanding a failure to any one of the multiple physical drives. The computing device may be configured with a Virtual Drive to store duplicative copies of the OS and associated configuration parameters across at least two physical drives. The computing device may further be configured with a firmware interface that is deployable to initialize the OS by accessing the Virtual Drive to load the OS and associated configuration parameters into a memory of the computing device. Once initialized, the OS may be operated from the Virtual Drive so that interruption from a failure of any one of the at least two physical drives storing the OS is mitigated.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computing device configured to maintain resiliency of an operating system (OS), the computing device comprising:
 a plurality of drive ports including at least a first drive port and a second drive port;   one or more processors; and   a memory in communication with the one or more processors, the memory having computer-readable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:
 establish operation of the OS in accordance with a resilient OS mode that corresponds to at least one of the OS or configuration parameters of the OS being accessible from at least a first physical drive that is coupled to the first drive port and a second physical drive that is coupled to the second drive port; 
 determine that an operational status of the second physical drive is associated with a transition from the resilient OS mode to a reduced OS resiliency mode, wherein the reduced OS resiliency mode corresponds to at least one of the OS or the configuration parameters being inaccessible from the second physical drive; 
 generate, in response to the operational status of the second physical drive, a notification associated with the transition from the resilient OS mode to the reduced OS resiliency mode; 
 receive an indication that a third physical drive has replaced the second physical drive at the second drive port; and 
 in response to the indication, duplicate at least one of the OS or the configuration parameters onto the third physical drive to re-establish operation of the OS in accordance with the resilient OS mode; and 
 update virtual drive metadata that defines a virtual drive that is configured to enable the computing device to operate the OS within the resilient OS mode, wherein updating the virtual drive metadata further enables a firmware interface to boot the OS from the third physical drive. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computing device to:
 in response to the indication that the third physical drive was replaced the second physical drive at the second drive port, update the virtual drive metadata that defines the virtual drive that is configured to enable the computing device to operate the OS within the resilient OS mode, wherein updating the virtual drive metadata further enables the firmware interface to boot the OS from the third physical drive.   
     
     
         3 . The computing device of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the operational status of the second physical drive is associated with the transition comprises:
 receiving health data corresponding to the second physical drive; and   determining, based on the health data, that a probability of the transition from the resilient OS mode to the reduced OS resiliency mode exceeds a threshold probability.   
     
     
         4 . The computing device of  claim 3 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computing device to:
 display at least one user interface element that enables a user to select an intermediary storage location for duplicating the configuration parameters prior to the third physical drive replacing the second physical drive at the second drive port.   
     
     
         5 . The computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computing device to:
 subsequent to a failure of the second physical drive and prior to the third physical drive replacing the second physical drive, access the configuration parameters from the first physical drive to establish operation of the OS in accordance with the reduced OS resiliency mode.   
     
     
         6 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 determining virtual drive metadata that defines a virtual drive as corresponding to at least a first physical drive that is coupled to a first drive port and a second physical drive that is coupled to a second drive port, wherein the virtual drive metadata is stored at least in association with a firmware interface;   enabling an operating system (OS) to run from the virtual drive in accordance with a resilient OS mode by duplicating at least one of the OS or configuration parameters of the OS onto at least the first physical drive and the second physical drive;   determining that an operational status of the second physical drive is associated with a transition from the resilient OS mode to a reduced OS resiliency mode;   determining that a third physical drive has physically replaced the second physical drive at the second drive port;   responsive to the third physical drive physically replacing the second physical drive, updating the virtual drive metadata stored on in association with the firmware interface to re-define the virtual drive as corresponding to at least the first physical drive that is coupled to the first drive port and the third physical drive that is coupled to the second drive port; and   duplicating at least one of the OS or the configuration parameters to the third physical drive to re-enable the OS to operate from the virtual drive in accordance with the resilient OS mode.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 based on the duplicating at least one of the OS or the configuration parameters to the third physical drive, updating a partition table to enable at least one boot manager to load the configuration parameters into a memory device from the third physical drive in accordance with an accelerated booting protocol.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein enabling the OS to operate from the virtual drive in accordance with the resilient OS mode includes facilitating concurrent access to at least one of the OS or the configuration parameters from at least two physical drives. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the configuration parameters are stored at least in a firmware interface system partition that is synchronized between the at least two physical drives. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein determining that the operational status of the second physical drive is associated with the transition to the reduced OS resiliency mode includes:
 determining that the second physical drive has been physically de-coupled from the second drive port.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein determining that the operational status of the second physical drive is associated with the transition to the reduced OS resiliency mode includes:
 determining, based on the operational status, that a probability of the transition from the resilient OS mode to the reduced OS resiliency mode exceeds a threshold probability.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 generating, in response to the probability of the transition exceeding the threshold probability, a notification that indicates the probability of the transition from the resilient OS mode to the reduced OS resiliency mode.   
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 responsive to the operational status of the second physical drive resulting in the transition, causing a display of a user interface element that indicates that the OS is currently operating in the reduced OS resiliency mode.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 responsive to the third physical drive replacing the second physical drive, updating hibernation stack data to replace an outdated hibernation file write path associated with the second physical drive with a new hibernation file write path associated with the third physical drive.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 responsive to the third physical drive replacing the second physical drive, updating crash stack data to replace an outdated crash dump write path associated with the second physical drive with a new crash dump write path associated with the third physical drive.   
     
     
         16 . A computing device, comprising:
 one or more processors;   a memory in communication with the one or more processors;   a first drive port coupled to a first physical drive and a second drive port coupled to a second physical drive, wherein each of the first physical drive and the second physical drive store at least one of an operating system (OS) or configuration parameters corresponding to the OS;   a firmware interface configured to selectively access at least the first physical drive and the second physical drive, the firmware interface having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon that are executable by the one or more processors to:
 receive a signal to initialize loading of the OS into the memory; 
 determine, in response to the signal, a first operational status of the first physical drive and a second operational status of the second physical drive; 
 based on the first operation status and the second operational status, select an OS booting protocol from a plurality of OS booting protocols, the OS booting protocol designating at least the first physical drive for booting the OS; and 
 accessing the first physical drive to load at least a portion of a first instance of the OS into the memory in accordance with the OS booting protocol. 
   
     
     
         17 . The computing device of  claim 16 , wherein the OS booting protocol is selected based, at least in part, on the first operational status indicating that the first physical drive is accessible to the firmware interface and the second operational status indicating that the second physical drive is inaccessible to the firmware interface. 
     
     
         18 . The computing device of  claim 16 , wherein the firmware interface includes at least one firmware variable that is accessible, during operation of the OS from the memory, to record update parameters associated with one or more updates to the configuration parameters, and wherein the update parameters indicate whether the first instance of the OS is outdated with respect to a second instance of the OS corresponding to the second physical drive. 
     
     
         19 . The computing device of  claim 18 , wherein the computer-executable instructions stored on the firmware interface are further executable by the one or more processors to:
 determine, based on the update parameters, that the first instance of the OS is outdated with respect to the second instance of the OS; and   generate a notification that indicates that the first instance of the OS is outdated with respect to the second instance of the OS, wherein the notification includes at least one user interface element that is configured to enable a user to indicate whether to load the at least the portion of the first instance into the memory.   
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 16 , wherein the OS booting protocol further designates the second physical drive for loading the OS into the memory, and wherein the computer-executable instructions stored on the firmware interface are further executable by the one or more processors to access the second physical drive to load at least a portion of a second instance of the OS into the memory in accordance with the OS booting protocol.